Applying for a Reception Place at Ladbrooke School
At the beginning of the school year in which each child will be five, parents can apply for a reception place at the school. This is done online via www.hertsdirect.org/admissions. Parents/carers are required to fill a form in and return it before a given date.
This year the you can apply from Wednesday 1st November 2023 until Monday 15th January 2024.
County admissions will allocate places based on the admissions rules below. Please note that you still have to apply for a reception place if your child is in the nursery. We are sorry but being in the nursery class does not guarentee you a place in reception.
Places this year will be allocated on Tuesday 16th April 2024.
Parents/carers must then choose whether to accept or reject this offer within a given time. There are appeal procedures, which the LA will explain, should parents/carers have a problem with the decision.
Once a place has been accepted at Ladbrooke, we will make contact, giving you details of a chance to visit before your child begins school.
Current Hertfordshire County Council's admission rules for community primary schools
We apply these rules in the order they are printed below. This means that we offer places first to every child who qualifies under Rule 1, and then to every child who qualifies under Rule 2, and so on. If more children qualify under a particular rule than there are places available, we use a tiebreak by applying the next rule to those children.
Rule 1: Children looked after and children who were previously looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or a special guardianship order)*.
Rule 2: Medical or Social Children for whom it can be demonstrated that they have a particular medical or social need to go to the school, which includes children previously from abroad who were cared for by the state because he or she would not otherwise have been cared for adequately and subsequently adopted.
A panel of officers will determine whether the evidence provided is sufficiently compelling to meet the requirements for this rule. The evidence must relate specifically to the school applied for under Rule 2 and must clearly demonstrate why it is the only school that can meet the child’s needs.
Rule 3: Linked School (This rule only applies to pupils who are currently attending an infant school which has a linked junior school¹.) In the case of junior schools, children who attend the linked infant school at the time of their application.
Rule 4: Sibling Children who have a sibling on the roll of the school or linked school at the time of application*. This applies to reception through to Year 5 in infant, junior and primary schools; and from reception through to Year 3 in first schools; and from Year 5 to Year 7 in middle schools.
Rule 5: Nearest School Children for whom it is their nearest school or academy. This includes all schools except those which allocate places on the basis of faith.
Rule 6: Distance Children who live nearest to the school. Children not considered under rule 5 will be considered under rule 6.
These rules are applied in the order they are printed above. If more children qualify under a particular rule than there are places available, the next rule will be used to further prioritise children.
Tie Break
When there is a need for a tie break where two different addresses are the same distance from a school, in the case of a block of flats for example, the lower door number will be deemed nearest as logically this will be on the ground floor and therefore closer. If there are two identical addresses of separate applicants, the tie break will be random. Every child entered onto the HCC admissions database has an individual random number assigned, between 1 and 1 million, against each preference school. When there is a need for a final tie break the random number is used to allocate the place, with the lowest number given priority.
Continuing Interest
After places have been offered, Hertfordshire County Council will maintain a continuing interest (waiting) list for all community and voluntary controlled schools. A child’s position on a CI list will be determined by the admission criteria outlined above and a child’s place on the list can change as other children join or leave it. The county council will contact parents/carers if a vacancy becomes available and it can be offered to a child. Continuing interest lists will be maintained for every year group until the summer term (date to be confirmed). To retain a CI application after this time, parents must make an In Year application.
In Year Admission
Hertfordshire County Council co-ordinate In Year Admissions for all community and voluntary controlled schools. Information about how to aply and the online application form can be found at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/inyear the oversubscription criteria outlined above is used to prioritise all In Year applications to community and voluntary controlled schools.
Fair Access
Community and voluntary controlled schools will admit children under the Fair Access Protocol before those on continuing interest, and over the Published Admission Number (PAN) if required.
Please note that the rules for Hertfordshire County Council have been printed in accordance with the determination of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. For further information, please contact the Admissions and Transport team.
Further details can be found in the "Starting School" booklet and on the Hertfordshire web site: http://www.hertsdirect.org/scholearn/admissions/
Appeals
If you don’t accept or decline, we may offer your place to someone else. We’ll then offer you a place at the nearest school that still has places.
We advise you to accept the place offered so your child definitely has a school in September. This doesn’t affect your chances of getting a school you prefer later, either through the continuing interest process, or through an appeal.
If you decide you wish to appeal please go to the appeals page on the Herts website. Once you have registered your appeal, Herts County County will process it and then
- Herts County Council will notify appellants (the person who made the appeal) about their appeal hearing at least 2 weeks in advance of the hearing (unless you've been requested to agree shorter timescales).
- Appellants will be sent a copy of the school's case 7 working days in advance of the hearing.
- Appeals lodged after the deadline will be heard within 40 school days of the appeal deadline or 30 school days of being lodged – whichever is the later date.
Starting at Ladbrooke
We have a single intake into the reception class. All children, irrespective of birth date, start reception in September. To support a successful integration into the school the start of the term is staggered as follows
Week 1 All children attend from 8.45am - 12.00pm
Week 2 All children attend from 8.45am - 1.30pm
Week 3 All children are in full time from 8.45am - 3.00pm